Microsoft Research Community

I receive this message when trying to launch the program:  "You need 3d Graphics and DirectX installed to run this application."  I know that I have the latest DirectX installed because I just went to the Microsoft Downloads page and installed it.  I *think* I am able to run 3D graphics.  Is there a site where I can download 3d Graphics drivers?  I am a teacher and am anxoius to try this out with my students.

 Thanks for any help you can give me!

I get an instant "WorldWide Telescope has stopped working" message.  I'm on Vista Home Edition, 4GB of RAM, Nvidia GeForce 7600 GT video card, all latest drivers, etc.  More specifically I'm on an HP Pavilion Media Center m8000n TV PC.   Can't imagine I don't meet the minimum requirements to run this.  ;-)

Bump...!  Anyone else seeing this issue?

A little more info about my setup:
* My DirectX version is 10 (not sure why the installer tried to install 9.0c)
* My .NET Framework version is 3.5

I've run through all possible Microsoft Updates, patches, etc. for everything installed on my PC.

Thanks.

 I have exactly the same problem running 4g RAm Vista ultimate Nvidia 8600.......can someone advise solution...........other than going back to XP

Nikito:

I get an instant "WorldWide Telescope has stopped working" message.  I'm on Vista Home Edition, 4GB of RAM, Nvidia GeForce 7600 GT video card, all latest drivers, etc.  More specifically I'm on an HP Pavilion Media Center m8000n TV PC.   Can't imagine I don't meet the minimum requirements to run this.  ;-)

I also get this message.  I have a Dell Inspiron 9100 (Intel Pentium 4, 2.8GHz laptop with 2.0Gb RAM, 256MB (Dedicated) ATI Mobility Radeon 9800, Vista Ultimate 32-bit SP1)

We just got this in... try this:

1. Check to make sure that 3D is enabled

2. Make sure that you are not using the VGA drivers - You need to use the hardware's own drivers

Chuck Needham:

We just got this in... try this:

1. Check to make sure that 3D is enabled

2. Make sure that you are not using the VGA drivers - You need to use the hardware's own drivers

1.) What setting are you referring to?

2.) I am running ATI Technologies Inc. 8.360.0.0 drivers (03/14/2007)

I'll answer the easy one first.

To check your display drivers:

• Click Start -> Run
• Type: "devmgmt.msc" and click "OK"
• Expand Display adapters (click the +)
• Right click your display adapter and click "Properties"
• Click the "Driver" tab
• Click the "Driver Details" button
• Look in the Driver Files window. If you see VGA or the word Microsoft you are probably using default VGA drivers.

We are looking into the 3D hardware issue and I will reply as soon as we have it figured out.

I am using the ATI-sourced drivers with Direct3D Acceleration enabled. 

For those of you on this thread receiving the "WorldWide Telescope has stopped working" message. Your DirectX install may have failed.

Try reinstalling DirectX by following this link:   http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=2da43d38-db71-4c1b-bc6a-9b6652cd92a3&displaylang=en

Yes, my DriectX seems to refuse to install correctly, a message pops up saying a cabinet file necessary for installation cant be trusted...verify the Cryptographic Services are enabled and the cabinet file certificate is valid.  I can't seem to find tech support for this...How would I go about fixing this? 

Hi Chuck, my apologies but for those of us who are technically savvy PC geeks (like me), and stay on top of updating all drivers, Windows updates, etc., the following suggestions simply don't appear to address the real issue.  My explanations follow...

Chuck Needham:

We just got this in... try this:
1. Check to make sure that 3D is enabled
2. Make sure that you are not using the VGA drivers - You need to use the hardware's own drivers

Unless you have 7+ year old PC, or you use a generic VGA card which doesn't support 3D acceleration at all, or you simply never bother to install or update your video drivers, or you actually go out of your way to disable 3D acceleration altogether (which takes some technical know-how), 3D acceleration *should* already be "enabled".  To clarify even further, I'm certain that by #2 above the tech meant to state that you should make sure you actually have your video card manufacturer's latest, recommended video drivers installed instead of the default, generic Microsoft VGA driver. 

Chuck Needham:

I'll answer the easy one first.
To check your display drivers:r
Click Start -> Run
Type: "devmgmt.msc" and click "OK"
Expand Display adapters (click the +)
Right click your display adapter and click "Properties"
Click the "Driver" tab
Click the "Driver Details" button
Look in the Driver Files window. If you see VGA or the word Microsoft you are probably using default VGA drivers.
We are looking into the 3D hardware issue and I will reply as soon as we have it figured out.

Again this relates to making sure you're not using the generic VGA driver and that you actually have the latest video drivers recommended for your video card installed.  To take this one "geek" step further :p you can click START then RUN (or just START in Vista) and type DXDIAG followed by ENTER to get to the DirectX Diagnostic Tool.  From there, you should see a DISPLAY tab which should indicate whether Direct3D Acceleration is ENABLED (it should be).

Chuck Needham:

For those of you on this thread receiving the "WorldWide Telescope has stopped working" message. Your DirectX install may have failed.
Try reinstalling DirectX by following this link:   http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=2da43d38-db71-4c1b-bc6a-9b6652cd92a3&displaylang=en

The installer seems to be bundled with the setup program for DirectX 9.0c, but users running Vista with all latest patches installed should already be on DirectX 10, so it doesn't make sense (at least in Vista) to try to "force" or otherwise attempt to install 9.0c.  Can you please confirm?

In all honesty, my best guess is that a) probably not a whole lot of testing was done with WWT and Vista and b) the real issue is probably related to the WWT application being unable to initialize 3D acceleration in Vista properly, which is probably the source of the application crashing almost instantly.

Anyhow, thanks in advance for reading and pursuing a solution.  Looking forward to seeing this animal eventually run on my PC! ;)

Bummer, I've switched over to my laptop running Windows XP and again, all latest drivers, Microsoft patches, etc., and I still can't get WWT to fire up.  Installation was successful, but when I try to launch the app I receive a stop message containing "WorldWide Telescope has encountered a problem and needs to close."

The error report contains the following data:

EventType : clr20r3     P1 : wwtexplorer.exe     P2 : 2.1.6.1     P3 : 48260f9b
P4 : wwtexplorer     P5 : 2.1.6.1     P6 : 48260f9b     P7 : dfc     P8 : 34d
P9 : system.io.filenotfoundexception    

Sorry I'm not offering help, but I am having a similar problem. I have a Mac Pro running OS10.5 Leopard, on which  is running VMWare Fusion PC emulator ver 1.1.2 (latest rev). Under this is Windows XP Professional SP3 (latest rev). The VMWare tools is updated to latest. DirectX 9.0c is freshly installed, along with .NET framework 2.0 .

I get the same error message: 3D graphics,etc. Running through the driver check as Chuck suggested brings up the VMWare display emulator VMWare SVGA II, with the driver files:

C:\WINDOWS\system32\DRIVERS\vmx_svga.sys

C:\WINDOWS\system32\DRIVERS\vmx_fb.dll

C:\WINDOWS\system32\DRIVERS\vmx_mode.dll

 I expect that this configuration is beyond anything that anyone has worried about yet, although it is probably pretty common. The fact that the same kind of problem is encountered is maybe a clue to what is going on; at the very least, I can hope that whatever resolves your situation, Nikito, will be applicable to this one. I will be following with rapt anticipation.

Nikito:

Bump...!  Anyone else seeing this issue?

A little more info about my setup:
* My DirectX version is 10 (not sure why the installer tried to install 9.0c)
* My .NET Framework version is 3.5

I've run through all possible Microsoft Updates, patches, etc. for everything installed on my PC.

Thanks.

WWT needs .NET 2.0 and DirectX 9.0c http://community.research.microsoft.com/forums/t/1085.aspx (yes you can have multiple versions on the same computer )